Distance Education State Almanac 2017

232 Pages·2017·13.25 MB·English

Distance Education State Almanac 2017
Julia E. Seaman, Ph.D.
Research Director, Babson Survey Research Group
Jeff Seaman, Ph.D.
Director, Babson Survey Research Group
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
by Babson Survey Research Group, e-Literate, and WCET
State maps images are by TUBS [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
C
ONTENTS

Sponsors .......................................................................................................................................................... 1
Definitions and Methods ............................................................................................................................. 3
National Overview ....................................................................................................................................... 3
State Comparison Charts .............................................................................................................. 6
Top Institutions by State ............................................................................................................. 20
National Report ............................................................................................................................. 25
State Reports ................................................................................................................................................ 30
Alabama ................................... 31 Montana ................................. 131
Alaska ....................................... 35 Nebraska ................................ 135
Arizona ..................................... 39 Nevada ................................... 139
Arkansas ................................... 43 New Hampshire ................... 143
California ................................. 47 New Jersey ............................ 147
Colorado ................................. 51 New Mexico ......................... 151
Connecticut ............................ 55 New York .............................. 155
Delaware .................................. 59 North Carolina ..................... 159
Florida ....................................... 63 North Dakota ....................... 163
Georgia ..................................... 67 Ohio ........................................ 167
Hawaii ....................................... 71 Oklahoma .............................. 171
Idaho ......................................... 75 Oregon ................................... 175
Illinois ........................................ 79 Pennsylvania .......................... 179
Indiana ...................................... 83 Rhode Island .......................... 183
Iowa .......................................... 87 South Carolina ...................... 187
Kansas ....................................... 91 South Dakota ........................ 191
Kentucky .................................. 95 Tennessee .............................. 195
Louisiana .................................. 99 Texas ...................................... 199
Maine ...................................... 103 Utah ........................................ 203
Maryland ................................ 107 Vermont ................................. 207
Massachusetts ....................... 111 Virginia .................................... 211
Michigan ................................. 115 Washington ........................... 215
Minnesota .............................. 119 West Virginia ........................ 219
Mississippi .............................. 123 Wisconsin .............................. 223
Missouri ................................. 127 Wyoming .............................. 227
S
PONSORS
Pearson
Pearson is the world’s learning company, with expertise in educational courseware and
assessment, and a range of teaching and learning services powered by technology. Our
mission is to help people make progress through access to better learning. We believe that
learning opens up opportunities, creating fulfilling careers and better lives. For more, visit

www.pearson.com
Online Learning Consortium
The Online Learning Consortium (OLC) is the leading professional organization devoted to
advancing the quality of online learning worldwide. The member-sustained organization offers
an extensive set of resources for professional development and institutional advancement of

online learning. Visit onlinelearningconsortium.org for more information.
Tyton Partners
Tyton Partners provides investment banking and strategy consulting services to companies,
foundations, post-secondary institutions, and investors as they navigate the complexities of
the global knowledge sector. For more information about Tyton Partners

visit www.tytonpartners.com or follow us @tytonpartners

Digital Learning Compass:

e-Literate
e-Literate is a weblog about educational technology and related topics that is co-published by
Michael Feldstein and Phil Hill, who are also partners at MindWires, an educational technology
analyst and consulting firm. It covers a broad range of topics related to trends in education—

particularly teaching and learning in higher education—that are impacted by technology.
WCET (WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies)
WCET is the leader in the practice, policy, & advocacy of technology-enhanced learning in
higher education. WCET is a, member-driven, non-profit which brings together colleges and
universities, higher education organizations and companies to collectively improve the

quality and reach of e-learning programs. Visit wcet.wiche.edu.
Babson Survey Research Group
The Babson Survey Research Group (BSRG) is a survey design, implementation, and analysis
organization. BSRG has worked on a number of large surveys including the annual survey of
global entrepreneurship (GEM) involving more than 70 countries and 160,000 respondents

worldwide and the thirteen annual surveys of online education covering all colleges and
universities in the US.
National 1
D M
EFINITIONS AND ETHODS
This report uses data collected under the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center
for Educational Statistics (NCES) Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS)
Fall Enrollment survey. Beginning with Fall 2012, the data includes distance education
enrollments, using the following:
Item Definition
Education that uses one or more technologies to deliver instruction to students who are
Distance
separated from the instructor and to support regular and substantive interaction
education
between the students and the instructor synchronously or asynchronously.
Technologies used for instruction may include the following: Internet; one-way and two-
way transmissions through open broadcasts, closed circuit, cable, microwave, broadband
lines, fiber optics, satellite or wireless communication devices; audio conferencing; and
video cassette. DVDs, and CD-ROMS, if the cassette, DVDs, and CD-ROMS are used in
a course in conjunction with the technologies listed above.
A course in which the instructional content is delivered exclusively via distance
Distance
education. Requirements for coming to campus for orientation, testing, or academic
education
support services do not exclude a course from being classified as distance education.
course
IPEDS collects distance education enrollments in two categories:
• “Exclusively” distance education: All of the student's enrollments for the term
were through distance education courses.
• “Some but not all” distance education: The student enrolled in a mix of course
modalities, including some distance education courses.
This report creates a third category – composed of the sum of “exclusively” and “some but
not all” distance education courses:
• "At least one" distance education course: A new data field created as the sum of
the above two categories.
The sample for this analysis is comprised of all active, degree-granting institutions of higher
education in the United States that are open to the public. The focus of this report is the
distance education data that has been collected by IPEDS for the fall 2012, fall 2013, fall
2014 and fall 2015 terms. IPEDS reporting includes a number of other variables that
describe the size, sector, and focus of each institution of higher education. This data allows
us to compare institutions using a consistent set of definitions provided by the IPEDS
survey.
Note: Changes over time for individual institutions is calculated using their IPEDS ID numbers. A
small number of institutions have changed the way in which they report to IPEDS, and have not
maintained the same ID numbers, so linkage is not possible. This does not impact data for a
particular year, nor any national or state level comparisons - it will, however, preclude the inclusion
of these institutions in a state list of top ten growth in overall enrollments or distance enrollments.
National 2
N O
ATIONAL VERVIEW
In higher education, 29.7% of all students are taking at least one distance course. The total
distance enrollments are composed of 14.3% of students (2,902,756) taking exclusively
distance courses and 15.4% (3,119,349) who are taking a combination of distance and non-
distance courses.
Overall Higher Education Enrollments are Down
There were 20,928,443 total students in fall 2012 at all levels enrolled across all degree-
granting institutions. Three years later in the fall of 2015, this number had decreased by
662,076, or 3.2%, to 20,266,367. Overall enrollments decreased by 248,091 students from
2012 to 2013, by 171,822 from 2013 to 2014, and by a further 242,163 from 2014 to 2015.
This pattern represents a new set of conditions for higher education institutions; the
previous period of 2002 through 2012 averaged a 2.7% compound annual growth rate for
overall enrollments. For the first time in over a decade, higher education institutions find
themselves competing for a smaller pool of students.
TOTAL ENROLLMENT-DEGREE-GRANTINGINSTITUTIONS -2012-2015
22,000,000
20,000,000 1,856,538 1,702,194 1,606,661 1,390,802
18,000,000
4,105,872 4,152,060 4,166,587 4,223,923
16,000,000 Private for-profit
14,000,000
Private non-profit
12,000,000
10,000,000
Public
8,000,000
14,966,033 14,826,098 14,735,282 14,651,642
6,000,000
4,000,000
2,000,000
-
2012 2013 2014 2015
The vast majority of all U.S. higher education students attend public institutions. Public
institutions represented 72.3% of all fall 2015 enrollments. Private non-profits represented
20.8%, while for-profit institutions enrolled only 6.9% of all students.
Most Distance Enrollments are at Larger Institutions
Larger institutions make up a small portion of all active degree-granting institutions, but
command the lion’s share of student enrollments. Schools with 15,000 or more total
enrollments comprise only 7.1% of all institutions (341 of 4,836), yet they enroll over nine
million students (9,326,861, or 46.0% of all student enrollments).
National 3
TOTAL ENROLLMENT BY SIZE OF INSTITUTION - 2015
10,000,000
9,000,000
8,000,000
7,000,000
6,000,000
5,000,000
9,326,861
4,000,000
3,000,000
4,586,969
2,000,000 3,608,498
1,000,000
1,236,336 1,507,703
0
Under 1,500 1,500 - 2,999 3,000 - 7,499 7,500 - 14,999 15,000 +
Distance Education Enrollment Growth is Increasing
Students who are taking at least one distance education course comprise 29.7% of all higher
education enrollments as of fall 2015. This share represents the total of those who are
taking all of their courses at a distance, and those who are taking a combination of distance
and non-distance courses. The proportion of the higher education student body taking
advantage of distance education courses has increased each of the last three years. It stood
at 25.9% in 2012, at 27.1% in 2013, and at 28.3% in 2014.
PERCENTAGE OF STUDENTS TAKING DISTANCE COURSES - 2012-2015
35.0%
30.0%
25.0%
15.4%
14.2%
20.0% 14.1%
13.3%
Some Distance
15.0% Exclusive Distance
10.0%
12.6% 13.1% 13.9% 14.3%
5.0%
0.0%
2012 2013 2014 2015
The number of students taking at least one distance education course increased 3.9% over
the previous year, and grew by 11.0% in the three years since 2012. The 3.9% growth rate
exceeds that observed between 2012 and 2013 (3.4%) and between 2013 and 2014 (3.3%).
The 6,022,105 total of distance education students for 2015 includes 4,999,112 who are
studying at the undergraduate level, and 1,022,993 who are studying at the graduate level.
National 4
STUDENTS TAKING DISTANCE COURSES BY LEVEL - 2012-2015
7,000,000
6,000,000
1,022,993
961,741
905,274
5,000,000 865,912
4,000,000
Graduate
3,000,000 Undergraduate
4,559,494 4,706,277 4,833,989 4,999,112
2,000,000
1,000,000
-
2012 2013 2014 2015
Public Institutions Host Two-thirds of All Distance Learners
Among all students who were taking at least one distance course in fall 2015, 1,020,622
(17.8%) were at a private non-profit institution, 870,918 (14.5%) were at a for-profit
institution, and the vast majority, 4,080,565 (67.8%), were at a public institution. Most
distance enrollments at public institutions were at four-year institutions, with 2,254,708
students (55.3%), while 1,825,857 (44.7%) enrolled at two-year institutions.
Distance Enrollments Are Primarily Undergraduate
There are nearly five times as many undergraduate enrollments (4,999,112) as graduate
enrollments (1,022,993) among students taking at least one distance education course. The
proportion of undergraduates (83.0%) among students taking at last one distance course is
only slightly less than the proportion among the overall higher education population
(85.3%).
DISTANCE AND TOTAL ENROLLMENTS PERCENTAGE UNDERGRADUATE -
2015
100.0%
90.0%
90.2% 90.2%
80.0%
80.0%
70.0%
72.5%
69.8%
60.0% 64.3%
50.0%
40.0%
30.0%
20.0%
10.0%
0.0%
Public Private non-profit Private for-profit
Distance Total
National 5
S C C
TATE OMPARISON HARTS
National 6
Percentage of Students Enrolled in at Least One Distance Course - 2015
National 30%
Alabama 37%
Alaska 48%
Arizona 59%
Arkansas 34%
California 23%
Colorado 32%
Connecticut 17%
Delaware 30%
Florida 40%
Georgia 28%
Hawaii 31%
Idaho 50%
Illinois 24%
Indiana 29%
Iowa 42%
Kansas 36%
Kentucky 37%
Louisiana 28%
Maine 33%
Maryland 33%
Massachusetts 17%
Michigan 23%
Minnesota 43%
Mississippi 34%
Missouri 31%
Montana 21%
Nebraska 40%
Nevada 35%
New Hampshire 55%
New Jersey 21%
New Mexico 39%
New York 15%
North Carolina 36%
North Dakota 44%
Ohio 30%
Oklahoma 35%
Oregon 29%
Pennsylvania 24%
Rhode Island 13%
South Carolina 27%
South Dakota 39%
Tennessee 29%
Texas 29%
Utah 46%
Vermont 25%
Virginia 36%
Washington 21%
West Virginia 54%
Wisconsin 25%
Wyoming 32%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
National 7
Percentage Change in Number of Students Enrolled in at Least One Distance Course - 2012
to 2015
National 11%
Alabama 3%
Alaska 36%
Arizona 72%
Arkansas 11%
California 18%
Colorado 6%
Connecticut 18%
Delaware 82%
Florida 9%
Georgia 26%
Hawaii 1%
Idaho 52%
Illinois 32%
Indiana 2%
Iowa 16%
Kansas 3%
Kentucky 12%
Louisiana 68%
Maine 19%
Maryland 23%
Massachusetts 23%
Michigan 13%
Minnesota 4%
Mississippi 30%
Missouri 15%
Mont-a2n%a
Nebraska 20%
Nevada 17%
New Hampshire 246%
New Jersey 9%
New Mexico 11%
New Y-o3%rk
North Carolina 6%
North Dakota 11%
Ohio 19%
Oklahoma 4%
Oregon 22%
Pennsylvania 31%
Rhode Island 4%
South Carolina 17%
South Dakota 8%
Tennessee 21%
Texas 24%
Utah 42%
Vermont 28%
Virgin0i%a
Washington 18%
West Virgi-n1i%a
Wisconsin 13%
Wyomin0%g
-50% 0% 50% 100% 150% 200% 250%
National 8